Nigeria’s eNaira central bank digital currency (CBDC) is over a year old, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has a late birthday present for it in the form of a working paper assessing its first year of performance. “Laudable,” said IMF researchers regarding the eNaira’s debut year, but there were a few suggestions too.
The eNaira was the world’s second CBDC, premiering in October 2021, after the Bahamian Sand Dollar. The paper found the eNaira’s retail side was intermediated, but had no problems with latency, as it has yet to make its breakthrough beyond its initial adopters. The Central Bank of Nigeria introduced a phased introduction, which put off two of the CBDC’s biggest goals, extending financial inclusion to the unbanked and facilitating remittances, according to IMF officials.
This story originally appeared on Investing
